Original Title: Who Actually Benefits from the Tokenization of RWAs And Why?

Original Author: Zeus, Crypto Analyst

Original Translator: Saoirse, Foresight News

I discussed this topic last week, and Andy from Rollup also asked related questions. People have been asking: Who are the real beneficiaries of the tokenization of real-world assets?

The real answer is: Almost everyone will benefit, but the reasons for benefiting, the timing, and the underlying logic are completely different.

Retail Perspective: From Bystander to Participant

For decades, retail investors have been systematically excluded from high-yield assets. It’s not because the assets are too complex, but because the traditional financial system itself is designed for large funds, qualified investors, and inefficient clearing; small investments are simply not worthwhile.

Tokenization does not just lower the barriers; it directly dismantles the entire system that creates those barriers.

Consider what it looks like for retail investors who want to invest in private credit now:

· The threshold is usually $250,000 to $1 million

· Must be a qualified investor

· Locked in for 3-7 years

· Almost no secondary market

· Fully dependent on fund managers

But once these funds are tokenized:

· Fragmented holdings: You don’t need $1 million; you can invest with $100. Smart contracts solve the problem of high management costs for small amounts.

· 24/7 trading: There are no opening or closing hours, no clearing window, and no waiting for bank transfers.

· Global reach: Retail investors in Lagos, Jakarta, and São Paulo can buy the same tokenized government bond fund as investors in Manhattan.

· Composability: Tokenized assets are programmable capital. They can be used for lending collateral, treasury strategies, and cross-platform circulation without the need for brokers.

On a deeper level: Retail investors gain not just "the ability to buy the same things more cheaply," but a whole new set of financial behaviors.

In one afternoon, you hold tokenized US Treasury bonds, use them as collateral to borrow stablecoins, and then invest in yield strategies, all while self-custodying, without having to make any calls to a financial advisor.

Before tokenization, retail investors were spectators in the global capital markets. After tokenization, retail investors become participants. The gap between the two is vast.

Issuer Perspective: Faster Financing, Broader Channels, Lower Costs

For issuers, the logic is simple: Tokenization allows for faster financing, lower costs, and an exponential expansion of the investor base. All issuers worldwide care about these three points, and tokenization can satisfy them simultaneously.

The shift from traditional issuance to tokenized issuance:

· Traditional settlements take weeks to months; tokenization completes in minutes to hours.

· Traditional processes require custody, transfer, brokerages, and clearing agencies; tokenization uses smart contracts for distribution, compliance, and clearing.

· Traditional systems are limited by geography, regulation, and thresholds; tokenization is global, 24/7, and accessible for small investments.

· Traditional manual reconciliation, quarterly reporting, and shareholder registry management are extremely costly; tokenization automates reporting, provides on-chain transparency, and real-time data.

· Traditional product structures are rigid; tokenization supports layered designs, flexible redemptions, and dynamic yield mechanisms.

Traditional private credit funds typically serve 50-200 institutions, and a round of financing can take months. Tokenized funds can serve thousands of investors: procedural compliance, digital account opening, extremely low thresholds, allowing retail investors, small family offices, and crypto-native institutions to participate.

Tokenization also brings a brand new ability for product design:

· Different risk/yield layered products within a single smart contract

· Flexible redemptions on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, executed automatically through code

· Dynamic yield mechanisms based on on-chain data

· Hybrid products combining fixed income and DeFi yields

These would be prohibitively expensive in traditional finance, but are straightforward within a tokenized system.

Institution Perspective: Clearing, Transparency, Structural Risk Reduction

Institutions do not care about the concept of crypto, nor do they care about the idea of decentralization. What they are truly obsessed with is: clearing risk, operational costs, accuracy of reporting, and regulatory compliance.

Tokenization brings quantifiable improvements in each area. This is also why top global financial institutions are all getting involved.

The current financial system is at least T+2 for settlement. This means that within two days after a trade:

· Counterparty default risk persists

· Funds are tied up and cannot be reused

· Reconciliation, margin, and collateral management are extremely complex

Tokenization turns clearing into almost real-time (T+0), and just this one change can:

· Release a significant amount of funds tied up in the settlement cycle

· Eliminate counterparty risk during the settlement period

· Greatly reduce reliance on clearinghouses, central counterparties, and other backend systems

This transformation has the potential to yield global annual efficiency gains of about $2.4 trillion. By 2030, conservative estimates predict annual benefits of $31 billion – $130 billion.

Giants already taking action:

· BlackRock launches the tokenized money market fund BUIDL, with a scale exceeding $1 billion

· Franklin Templeton puts fund shares on-chain through BENJI

· JPMorgan develops the Onyx platform for tokenized repo and collateral management

· Goldman Sachs, HSBC, UBS, and Citigroup are all piloting or building tokenization infrastructure

They are not getting involved because blockchain is trendy but because: it’s cheaper, faster, and less risky.

Infrastructure Builder Perspective: The "Water Seller" of a Trillion-Dollar Market

In every major transition, the winners are those who build the infrastructure. The pickaxes of the gold rush, the servers of the internet, AWS for cloud computing.

The tokenization of real-world assets is constructing a whole new financial infrastructure. Companies that do this well will become the foundational pipelines of a market exceeding $11 trillion.

The necessary modules of this ecosystem:

· Custodial institutions: Ensure the legal correspondence of on-chain tokens with real-world assets, making them one of the most critical roles in the ecosystem.

· Compliance layer: KYC/AML, investor certification, geographical restrictions, cross-border compliance, all proceduralized.

· Issuance platform: Allows anyone to legally and simply complete asset tokenization.

· Clearing and settlement infrastructure: Achieves instantaneous clearing, connecting on-chain and traditional banking systems.

· Oracles and data: Links net worth, interest rates, defaults, house prices, and commodity prices on-chain, forming the basis for token pricing.

· Legal and structural services: SPVs, trusts, fund architectures; without legal foundations, tokens are just strings of numbers.

Emerging Market Perspective: The Overlooked Real Revolution

The Western finance circles rarely talk about this, but it could be the most important part: For billions of people in emerging markets, tokenization is not "better finance," but the first true financial system that serves them.

The financial dilemmas in many emerging markets:

· High inflation, rapid depreciation of local currency;

· A large population without bank accounts or inadequate financial services;

· Capital controls, unable to allocate foreign currency and overseas assets;

· Cross-border remittance fees of 5%-10%, taking days;

· Local assets yield extremely low returns, failing to beat inflation.

Tokenization + stablecoins completely changes this:

· You can earn dollar returns without a US bank account. Argentinians can hold tokenized US Treasury bonds and earn dollar yields using stablecoins. As long as you have a wallet and internet, there’s no need to be a qualified investor or to wire funds. In a country where the local currency depreciates by 40% in a year, this is not an improvement; it’s a lifeline.

· Stablecoins become a savings tool. In high-inflation countries, USDC and USDT have effectively become means of saving for preserving value. Tokenized assets can then provide yield on top of that.

· Ordinary people can also invest in top-tier global assets. People in Southeast Asia and Africa used to have almost no access to: US Treasury bonds, investment-grade bonds, private credit, global real estate. Tokenization makes these assets fragmented and investable 24/7.

· Instant, low-cost cross-border transfers. Cross-border remittances are the economic lifeline of many countries; traditional fees are high, and transactions are slow. Stablecoins and tokenized assets can complete transactions in minutes at very low costs.

· Real-time payroll settlements. Wages can be paid directly on-chain in real time, so employees don’t have to wait for payday and can access their pay whenever they need.

About 1.4 billion adults globally do not have bank accounts, and billions are underserved by financial services. Tokenization + stablecoins is the first pathway to achieving large-scale inclusive finance without relying on traditional banks.

For these people, tokenization is not just "making finance a little better," but making finance accessible for the first time.

Complete Benefit Map

· Retail Investors: Gain access and composability, low thresholds, globalization, programmable capital.

· Issuers: Faster financing, lower costs, broader investor base, more flexible products.

· Institutions: Real-time clearing, risk reduction, lower operational costs, increased transparency.

· Regulators: On-chain traceability, embedded compliance, from passive regulation to real-time accurate oversight.

· Infrastructure Players: Become the foundational pipelines of a trillion-dollar market, with enormous long-term benefits.

· Emerging Markets: Truly achieve financial inclusion, solving structural issues such as inflation, controls, and service deficiencies.

A Necessary Wake-Up Call About Risks

Tokenization is not a panacea:

· It cannot fix bad assets

· It does not guarantee liquidity

· It will not make risks disappear

Tokenized bonds can still default, and tokenized real estate can still lose value. If the legal structure is weak, custodial services are unreliable, or the oracle is fraudulent, and the issuer does not manage the assets, the token is just a worthless string of numbers.

All benefits are real and have logical and practical support, but they will only be realized if all legal, custodial, compliance, and operational aspects are executed correctly.

Tokens are just the last piece; everything beneath is what truly matters.

Tokenization is not magic; it’s infrastructure. And infrastructure, only if built correctly, can operate.

So, who benefits the most?

To be honest: It depends on the time horizon.

· Short-term: Institutions and issuers win first

They immediately save real money on clearing, compliance, and operations, without needing retail investors or secondary markets, only better infrastructure.

· Mid-term: Infrastructure and technology providers win

The market size is expected to reach $11 trillion by 2030, companies providing custody, compliance, issuance, and clearing will become industry standards.

· Long-term: Retail investors and emerging market populations ultimately benefit the most

As infrastructure matures, compliance stabilizes, and secondary markets deepen, anyone globally will be able to use a phone to invest in any asset 24/7.